This study examined the impact of the 2004 Asian tsunami on 400 Thai adolescents 1 year after the disaster. Quantitative analyses showed that youth behavior problems were positively associated with tsunami experiences and negatively associated with positive family functioning. Tsunami exposure, school connectedness, religious beliefs and…

This article explores the documented degree of the destruction triggered by Hurricane Katrina, the impact on the Orleans Parish School District (OPSD), and the efforts that have been made to recover, rebuild, and reopen the public schools. Using a framework that examines historical inequalities and long-term neglect of OPSD schools pre-Katrina,…

Modern organizations constantly face unparalleled changes and uncertainty in the competitive world, thus requiring strategic planning to mitigate crisis conditions. Underscoring crisis plans are performance interventions that prepare employees, technological systems, and the organizational culture to effectively respond to a crisis event. However,…

Recent disasters have been of such scale and complexity that both the common assumptions made about learning from them, and the traditional approaches distinguishing natural from technological disasters (and now terrorism) are thus challenged. Beck's risk thesis likewise signals the need for a paradigmatic change. Despite sociological inflections…

The author discusses the effectiveness of popular culture as a tool for the instillation of hope within a community, using as an example the ways in which a National Football League team galvanized the residents of New Orleans in the 18 months following Hurricane Katrina. This article posits that the Saints supplied an impetus for transcendence…

Background: Family context can affect children's vulnerability to various stresses, but little is known regarding the role of family variables on children's reactions to natural disaster. This prospective study examined the influence of predisaster observed parenting behaviors and postdisaster parental stress on young children's distress following…

This comprehensive analysis addresses the United States' alarming lack of preparedness to respond effectively to a massive disaster as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina. First, a timeline of problematic response events during and after Hurricane Katrina orients readers to some of the specific problems encountered at different levels of government.…

A significant number of children suffer long-term psychological disturbance following exposure to a natural disaster. Evidence suggests that a dose-response relationship exists, so that children and adolescents who experience the most intense or extensive exposure to the risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are likely to develop…

This article describes a support group for Sri Lankan women survivors of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. The article discusses unique leader challenges in doing group work in a diverse and foreign setting, and presents leader reflections, recommendations, and implications for group workers who may work with disaster survivors.

Before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, one hundred and twenty one schools in the New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) system were in the process of being transferred to the newly created, state run Recovery School District (RSD). On September 29, 2005, the New Orleans Parish School Board fired all 7500 employees, including every…

As one natural disaster after another seemed to define the year 2005, library workers across the nation generously donated money, materials, and labor to help victims and damaged institutions recover. Some librarians donated to specific institutions, while others donated to more general charities. Many worried about media reports of fraudulent…

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, it inflicted wind and flooding damage on all but one of the five campuses and centers of Delgado Community College, the oldest and largest two-year institution in Louisiana. Hardest hit was Delgado's main location, the City Park Campus in New Orleans, where three to six feet of flood…

Many people are invisible within and to the wider society. An adjunct aspect of that situation is that the marginalized are also invisible to one another. This "mutual invisibility" undermines the possibilities of cooperative transcommunal alliances. It is Cedric Sunray's ("Similarities between Tribes and the Ninth Ward,"…

The changing demographic landscape of the United States calls for a reassessment of the societal impacts and consequences of so called "natural" and technological disasters. An increasing trend towards greater demographic and socio-economic diversity (in part due to high rates of international immigration), combined with mounting…

A number of factors can contribute to youth's reactions to disasters. These factors can include characteristics of the event; the nature of youth's exposure; and individual, family, and social predictors. This article describes both outcomes and predictors in order to prepare professionals who might work with youth in post-disaster situations.…